


Dream Machine

by SugarCrystal



Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: M/M, Sex Dreams, Snooping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 12:15:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11851386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarCrystal/pseuds/SugarCrystal
Summary: Rimmer's dream recorder proves a temptation for a bored Lister. Just a short thing I threw together.





	Dream Machine

Rimmer was away for a week, hiking around the lower decks again, and Lister was bored. Back when Rimmer had disappeared entirely for a while to be Ace, life for Lister had been all about scavenging and fighting for survival, there hadn't been time to get really bored. Now that he had the safety and comfort of Red Dwarf back and absolutely nothing to do all day, it was another matter. Himself, Cat and Kryten all got on well - when they weren't locked in an inadequate quarantine cell together. Without Rimmer to bounce off of, things got very boring, very quickly. 

_No wonder Holly thought I needed him to stay sane._

Lister had read five magazines cover to cover, won two Scrabble games against Cat, until Cat had lost interest and gone for a nap, rewatched a film he could recite backwards in his sleep and, just for else something to do, had a long, hot shower. Now he was occupying himself with seeing how far he could tip his chair back on two legs without overbalancing, which he suspected qualified as peak boredom. In the corner of the room, Rimmer's dream recorder caught his eye.

The thing about dream recorders was, they were supposed to be private, there wasn't much more private than the inside of your own head. You weren't supposed to watch anybody else's dream recorder without express permission and people only ever shared recorded dreams with those they were close to anyway. 

Sure, he'd watched the first Kochanski's recorder in her old quarters a few times, but she was dead, so it wouldn't hurt her and surely he should be allowed to relive memories of her when memories were all he had left. And anyway, that was years ago. Watching Rimmer's was a different matter, Rimmer, dead or otherwise, was still here and that made it a violation of privacy, even more so than reading Rimmer's diary.

On the other hand, Rimmer wouldn't know.

After a brief battle with his conscience, which he won, Lister settled himself comfortably into a chair and switched the machine on. It was password protected but Rimmer was nothing if not predictable, it only took Lister three tries to get in.

Rimmer being Rimmer, all the dreams that he'd kept had been sorted and filed. There was a folder labelled "Past Lives". Rimmer believed in that reincarnation nonsense, didn't he? Presumably this was where he kept any dream that he thought was a memory from a previous life. That one might be worth a look, there might be some quite entertaining stuff in there. Lister snorted with laughter at the thought of Rimmer as a eunuch.

Another folder was labelled "Hobbies and Interests", Lister ignored that one, he wasn't interested in dreams about Risk games and ancient telegraph poles.

And then there was, unexpectedly, a folder labelled "Lister", which suddenly made Lister feel a hell of a lot less bad about snooping. Rimmer having dreams about him was one thing, no one could help what they dreamt after all, but Rimmer _keeping_ the recordings of those dreams and filing them under "Lister", rather than deleting them, was another matter. And whether a dream recorder was supposed to be private or not, if someone was deliberately keeping dreams they'd had about _you_ to rewatch later then surely that was your business.

Lister opened the folder.

The first dream was apparently really old, it had a Rimmer who was very young, very skinny and not a hologram, wearing his original JMC uniform, a Lister looking as young as he had when he'd first joined the ship, and their original, grey, bunkroom.

Lister watched as the onscreen Rimmer approached his onscreen self, grabbed him and pulled him into a searing kiss. - Okay, Lister hadn't expected that.

After several seconds of passionate snogging, which the dream Lister didn't seem to be objecting to, Rimmer propelled him towards the table, pushed him face down over it, yanked down both of their trousers and plunged right into him. Lister was pretty sure you needed some sort of lubricant for that but, whatever, dream logic. It was pretty weird, watching himself starring in a porno that he'd never made, though hardly the weirdest thing that had ever happened to him.

The onscreen Rimmer had him by the shoulders, roughly pounding into him from behind. "Like this, miladdo?" he squawked nasally. "Like being fucked by your superior?"

"Yes, Mr Rimmer, Sir," panted the onscreen Lister and Lister snorted with derision. "In your dreams, Rimsy!" And then remembered that that was exactly what he was watching and shrugged. Point proven.

He exited the file and sat tapping his fingers against his lips as he thought about this. So, Rimmer had not only had dirty dreams about him, but kept recordings of them, presumably as wank fodder, what other reason was there? He had no idea how to feel about this, he thought he _ought_ to be indignant about it, but wasn't sure if he actually was.

The only remotely similar dream he'd ever had about Rimmer had been the one that occurred through missing him during his absence. It had started out as a normal reunion and turned into an extremely cheesy romantic scene. Which made sense, Lister loved soppy, cheesy old romance films. Did this mean Rimmer watched a lot of porn behind everyone's backs? Lister wouldn't put it past him.

He wondered how old this dream was, the dream Lister was wearing full JMC uniform with a properly buttoned shirt and a tie. Lister had worn the full uniform when he'd first joined, for about three days, under the impression that it was mandatory, but he'd soon realised that standards were a lot more relaxed than he'd thought and the uniform was treated as more of a guideline than a rule, especially among the lower ranks. The only person on board to wear the full uniform at all times was Rimmer, Todhunter didn't usually bother with a tie, even Hollister only wore one sometimes. So Lister had stopped bothering too, much to Rimmer's annoyance. Besides, Lister knew he could never have pulled it off as well as Rimmer. Seeing the dream Rimmer reminded him how good Rimmer had looked in the old uniform.

The dream Lister wearing it _may_ have just been part of the fantasy, it was how Rimmer wanted Lister to look after all. But it may also have been based on what Rimmer had actually seen that day, which would have dated the dream to no more than three days after he and Rimmer had first been introduced. That thought made Lister rather more uncomfortable about this whole thing and he decided not to check the date on the file.

Did he want to watch any more? The thought dawned on him that there might just possibly be something involving a holowhip in there somewhere and if there was, then Lister really, really didn't want to know. 

He closed the folder and switched the machine off. He'd find something else to alleviate his boredom, maybe Kryten wanted a hand folding some sheets.


End file.
